The Impact of the Hypotheses and Experiments Lessons’ Strategy

on the Motivation of Egyptian Primary Science Teachers – I

- A Questionnaire Survey on the Egyptian Science Teachers -

Kuniaki Tanaka Tafida Ghanem

Associate Professor of science education Researcher of science education

Hokkaido University of Education National Center for Educational Research

Hakodate Campus, JAPAN and Development, EGYPT

Summary

This is the first report of the impact of the Hypotheses and Experiments Lessons’ strategy on the Egyptian

primary science teachers. The strategy applies the Japanese theory and method of “Kasetsu Jikken Jugyou”

which is designed for a conceptual reform and scientific enjoyment of inquiry by means of a series of

meaningful questions and simple experiments. The experts of PPMU1 and JICA

2 introduced the multiple

theories and methods of science instruction into 107 Egyptian primary science teachers by 5 days training

program in 2003 and 2004. This program contained 3 days of special lectures and workshops focused on the

Hypotheses and Experiments Lessons’ strategy.

The follow up questionnaire survey on the trainees after 1.5 or 2.5 years of the training indicated that the

most of the trainees have accepted the strategy in a high motivation, and the Egyptian pupils welcome the

lessons along the strategy. A successful experience on the strategy encourages the trainees to apply the

strategy. Also it suggested that the trainees request a further training of the strategy, more number of inspectors

who are familiar with the strategy and more lesson plans designed for the strategy along the Egyptian science

curriculum. Thus, it is conclude that the Hypotheses and Experiments Lessons is one of the most promising

strategies for implementing into the scene of Egyptian primary science education.

Keywords : questionnaire survey, hypotheses, experiment, Kasetsu Jikken Jugyou, Japanese theory, enjoyment, science inquiry, conceptual reform, conceptual change

1. Introduction

Egypt government stated Basic Education Reform Program in 1991, and Ministry of Education has

invested their budget striving for a large number of school constructions and the innovation of educational

aids such as introducing the new strategies of instruction and information and communication technology in

Egyptian classrooms. These actions resulted in a quantitative development. In fact, the enrolment to basic

education has evolutionary achieved since 1990.

However, repetition and dropout rate of students in the basic education still are a key concern3. Parents

and educators argue rote studies and preparations for score tests in these days. A qualitative reform of school

life introducing attractive lessons is a key factor for further development of basic education in Egypt.

Ministry of Education shared in two projects for improvement of primary education with a cooperation

of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). First project from 1997 to 2000 was called "The

Development of Creative Science and Mathematics Lessons in Primary Education". In this project, JICA

experts and the researchers of National Center for Educational Research and Development (NCERD) in

Egypt produced a teachers' guidebook. The guidebook of science included the instructions on the strategy of

“Hypotheses and Experiment Lesson”(HEL). The content of the science guidebook has been summarized

and translated into Arabic. The content of the Arabic guidebook was used for training primary science

teachers. The second project called "The improvement of Science and Mathematics Education in Primary

School in Egypt" has been carried out from 2003 to 2006. In this project the teacher guidebook were revised

by JICA experts and NCERD researcher to be focused on children-centered lesson.

The PPMU and JICA conducted five days training courses for 48 number of primary science teachers

from 27 governorates in 23rd July to 5

th August 2003 at Suzan Mubarak Science Exploration Center in

Qualubia. In the next year, PPMU and JICA conducted the same training program for other 59 number of

primary science teachers from 27 governorates in July to August 2004 at Students Union Center in Aguza,

Cairo (Table 6). The JICA experts and NCERD researchers introduced the lectures and workshops of the

training program (Table 3) to the trainees from 27 governorates. This training program aimed to spread the

new teaching strategies all over Egypt expecting the trainees to disseminate the strategies to their colleagues in

27 governorates.

In this research, we examine the impact of the newly introduced the Hypotheses and Experiment

Lesson’s (HEL’s) strategy for conceptual study on the motivation of primary science teachers by a

longitudinal questionnaire survey on all the teachers who attended the training course designed and

implemented by the researchers.

1-1. The Statement of the problem

Primary science education in Egypt faces five main problems as follows : (1) the low level of scientific

literacy of primary science teachers, (2) lack of effective teacher training program, (3) disabilities of teachers to

apply new teaching strategies, (4) ignorance of practical and experimental science class, (5) high level of

students misconception4. Striving for the previous problems, Egyptian science teachers need a new strategy

for promoting their teaching levels, and for helping students avoid misconception. The abilities and

motivation of Egyptian science teachers to apply the new strategy of HEL need to be clarifying.

1-2. Research Goals and objectives

1-2-1 Research Goal

The goal of this research is to determine the impact of the HELs’ strategy on the motivation of Egyptian

primary science teachers. This goal should be examined on the following long-term effects :

1- Reconstruct students' scientific concepts.

2- Solve students' misconception problem.

3- Solve the problem that students dislike science class and science study.

4- Promoting teachers’ performance in science classes.

5- Encourage teachers to apply simple and enjoyable experiments in their classes.

1-2-2 Research objectives

This research aims to examine the impact of the training program on the motivation of Egyptian primary

science teachers. The impact should be examined by the results following surveys :

1- Post training survey.

2- Follow up survey.

1-3. Research Importance

This research may help:

1- Ministry of education to reconstruct primary science curriculum and its control system introducing a

new teaching strategy for conceptual study.

2- Teacher training centers to design an effective training program for teachers according to the new

strategy.

3- Science inspectors to support the new strategy.

4- Science teacher to apply the new strategy.

5- Educators to spread the new strategy.

1-4. Research Questions

The research concerns of the principal following question:

What is the impact of the new strategy of Hypotheses and Experiments Lessons (HEL) on the motivation of

Egyptian primary science teachers? And this leads to the following sub questions:

1- What is the core idea of the HEL’s strategy?

2- What is the suggested training program for training science teachers on the HEL’s strategy?

3- What is the impact of the training program on the motivation of Egyptian primary science teachers?

1-5. Research Plan

To answer these research questions, we must do the following works :

1- Review literature, and previous studies of the field of conceptual change.

2- Determine the main advantage of the HEL’s strategy.

3- Design the training program for training primary science teachers on the HEL’s strategy determining

the following contents :

a- Goals and objectives.

b- Program content.

c- Tools and materials.

d- Evaluation methods.

4- Design the following tools for evaluation :

e- Post training survey questionnaire.

f- Follow up survey questionnaire.

5- Experimental design :

g- Determine group of study.

h- Apply the teacher’s training program.

i- Apply the post training survey.

j- Apply the follow up survey.

k- Analyze the data of the applied surveys.

6- Discuss the results, and write conclusion.

7- Offer recommendations, and suggestions.

1-6. Theoretical framework

1-6-1 Hypotheses and Experiment Lesson’s Strategy:

(1) Eager Problem for Conceptual “Reform”

“Conceptual change” has become a new trend in the world scene of science education in these 20 years.

The basic theory of conceptual change (Posner et al., 1982)5 and the revised theory (Strike & Posner, 1992)

6

guided many researches on constructivism and they uncovered a lot of prior knowledge or preconceptions

that interfere with an accommodation of scientific concepts in learning science. The theory of conceptual

change insists that a student’s preconception seldom corresponds with a scientific concept and no scientific

concept can be taught without a special program for conceptual changes. These kinds of preconceptions are

defied as misconceptions7, alternative frameworks, naïve concepts or theories. Constructivists proposed four

basic conditions for bringing about conceptual changes8.

1. Dissatisfaction with a preconception.

2. Intelligible alternative conception.

3. Plausible alternative conception.

4. Fruitful alternative conception

How to make up these conditions in our classroom practically? Scott et al. (1991)9 identified two groups

of strategies to promote conceptual change. The first group of the strategies is bases on cognitive conflict and

the resolution of confliction perspectives. The second group is the strategies of building on learners’ existing

ideas and extending them.

However, what is the most effective technique to control the process of conceptual change by which prior

misconceptions are detected and changed into scientific concepts is unclear. The development of instructional

techniques for reforming misconceptions into scientific concepts is the hottest assignment on researching the

conceptual study in science education.

(2) Japanese Strategy for a Conceptual Study

More than 15 years prior to the original theory of conceptual change, in 1963, Itakura10

proposed the first

model lesson plan for primary kinetics of “A pendulum and swing” 11

that aims at conceptual

accommodation reforming students’ misconceptions. He defined such the lessons as the Kasetsu Jikken

Jugyou (KJJ): it means the “Hypotheses and Experiment Lessons” in Japanese. Also the lessons enabled the

teachers to perform the enjoyable study by the original theory, criteria, method and materials. For researching

and disseminating KJJ, Itakura organized the committee12

in 1970. The committee has designed, examined

all the KJJ’s lesson plans and materials through the practice since then. The KJJ committee seems to be one of

the most active educational NGOs in Japan.

The core idea of KJJ is performing exciting and attractive lessons by means of introducing a real inquiry

process of scientific research in a classroom. The terminology of KJJ : “hypotheses and experiments lessons”

clearly shows that it aims to compromise the educational experiments with the experiments for researching.

Moreover, the active publisher13

of the KJJ committee has provided many series of practical records of

KJJ in Japanese classes. They not only uncovered a lot of misconceptions but also made clear how to reform

the discovered misconception into appropriate scientific concept. It can be said that KJJ is overcoming

misconception by utilizing misconception as a necessary precondition of conceptual reform14

.

(3) Characteristics of KJJ (Kasetsu Jikken Jugyou) 15

Theory

The primary theory of KJJ is defined into the following three characteristics:

1- KJJ aims to teach the most basic scientific concepts and laws.

2- Only the experiments that are the positive and subjective actions inquiring into nature can formulate a

scientific concept or recognition in our mind.

3- A scientific recognition is a social recognition that is agreed, applied and valued in our human society.

Criteria

All the plans of KJJ have to satisfy the three primary criteria as follows :

1- More than a half of the classroom students welcomes the performed lesson according to the plan.

2- Nearly all the students understand the contents and the objectives of the performed lesson according to

the plan.

3- The teacher who applied the KJJ plan wants to perform the same lesson in another class.

Method

KJJ has a systematic method of managing the experimental classes as follows :

1- Teacher provides the Lesson Sheet to all the students each by one sheet.

2- The students read the content of the Lesson Sheet. The teacher explains the content if necessary.

3- Each student should select only one answer from among several answer choices for the question.

4- The teacher asks the reasons why the students select their own answers.

5- The students discuss on the different reasons and the teacher takes a chair of the discussion.

6- Teacher makes the experiment. The students observe it.

7- The teacher move to the next question and experiment.

Materials

KJJ should apply an original Lesson Sheet that is published and certificated by the KJJ committee. The

publisher of the KJJ committee has provided the following products since 1973 :

1- Lesson Sheets for science education : more than 40

2- Lesson Sheets for mathematics education : 28

3- Guide books for social science education : 10

4- Lesson Sheets for art and physical education : 16

5- Teaching materials and goods : more than 38

(4) Components and roles of Lesson Sheets16

1- Components

Lesson Sheets of KJJ are composed of the following main components:

a- Simple questions without answer choices.

b- A series of questions with answer choices.

c- Questioned experiments or observations with an illustration and a description.

d- Definition of a scientific term

e- Scientific stories from the history of science and technology.

2- Roles

Lesson Sheets of KJJ play the two important roles:

a- A teaching guide for a teacher.

b- A notebook for the students.

(5) Four Advantages of KJJ

Challenging to solving the problems and to the further improvement of the basic education in Egypt, the

theory and the method of KJJ seems to have the following four advantages over other strategies in primary

science education:

1- It aims to perform the exciting and enjoyable lessons that are welcomed by the major applicants. This

will encourage both Egyptian science teachers and the students.

2- It has a lot of actual experience in reforming students’ misconception and teaching a basic concept in

science.

3- It has a simple format of technique for managing classes and for monitoring the process of the aimed

conceptual reforms.

4- It has a lot of material resources such as lesson plans, teaching materials and tools, the records of KJJ in

practice.

Thus, the theory and the method of KJJ seem to provide the most promising strategy of conceptual study

to make improve the Egyptian science education. This strategy also will fit for the request from the modern

Egyptian society where the “Conceptual and Procedural Scientific Literacy” is necessary for all citizens to

understand “Science in Personal and Social Perspectives”17

.

(6) Core Ideas of the Theory and the Method of KJJ

Because the lesson plans of KJJ were designed considering to the environment of Japanese classrooms

where most of all the basic experimental equipments and materials are available. This means that not all the

original lesson plans of KJJ are applicable in Egyptian classrooms. Alternative plans are necessary for

Egyptian science teachers to perform a suitable lesson under the environment of Egyptian classrooms. This

requests the theoretical and methodological core ideas to construct a new strategy challenging to the

difficulties in Egyptian science classes.

Even a beginning teacher can perform a successful lesson by an originally designed Lesson Sheet

according to the managing method of KJJ. A cognition cycle (Fig.1) in a classroom is the most basic

management pattern of the KJJ’s strategy. The teacher turns over the cognition cycle among students by

giving a meaningful question on an experiment. The students are ordered to select only one answer from

several answer choices. A controversial discussion automatically occurs between the conflicting groups of the

students. The discussion makes clear the difference between the hypotheses of conflicting students. The result

of the experiment verifies which hypothesis is appropriate to the fact. This cognition cycle in a classroom

follows the same process as a scientific inquiry.

A series of cognition cycles are connected into a cognition spiral, and several spirals compose a series of

spirals in KJJ (Fig.2). Experimenting through a cognition spiral, most of all the students can discover their

misconceptions in the first cycle. Only a few students notice an appropriate hypothesis in the second cycle.

Some students can justify a promising hypothesis in the third cycle. Nearly all the students can accept a correct

hypothesis as a scientific concept in the final cycle. This process enables each student to reform his/her

misconception and to experience a scientific inquiry, an exciting enjoyment and a discovery in science and

nature.

Thus, this systematic method of designing several cognition cycles into a spiral should be extracted from

KJJ as the core idea of the new strategy of conceptual study disseminating in Egypt. We propose the new

strategy to be named as Hypotheses and Experiment Lessons (HEL) in this study. The dissemination of the

HEL’s strategy is not only aiming to a simple application of KJJ in Egypt but also aiming to prove the

practical efficiency of the basic theory and method of KJJ in worldwide countries.

Meaningful

Question

Hypothesis 1Result of

Experiment

Controversial

Discussion

Correct

HypothesisAnswer 1

Hypothesis 2

Reason 1

Answer 2

Reason 2

Hypothesis 3

Answer 2

Reason 2

Question 1

Discuss 1

Question 2

Question 4

Question 3

Discuss 2

Discuss 3

Experiment 4

Discuss 4

Question 1

Spiral 1 Spiral 2

1. Misconception

2. Noticed Hypothesis

3. Justified Hypothesis

4. Scientific Concept

Experiment 1

Experiment 2

Experiment 3

Fig.1 A cognition cycle in KJJ Fig.2 The cognition spirals in KJJ

(7) Difficulty of Introducing KJJ

A lot of practical records of KJJ suggest that there are double steps in a process of conceptual reforms.

The first process is to uncover students’ misconceptions by a meaningful question with some misreading

answer choices. In this process, enough numbers of experiments show the facts against the misconception.

The second process is to suggest the scientific definition of the concept by the appropriate science stories. The

theory of KJJ defines the “experiments” as all the human’s actions to verify his/her hypothesis. This definition

of the experiment aimed to not only expands the domain of it into all human life but also introduces the

method of scientific inquiry into classrooms. Accordingly, the theory of KJJ requests each student to have

his/her own hypothesis. This requests the teacher to perform a successful and perfect experiment according to

the appropriate technique and procedure in a classroom. This may become a burden for Egyptian science

teachers.

2. Method of Research

2-1. Teacher training Program

2-1-1 Goals and objectives

(1) Goals:

By the end of the training program teachers should be able to:

1- Understand the Hypotheses and Experiment Lesson’s (HEL’s) strategy.

2- Apply lessons of the hypotheses and experiments strategy in their classrooms.

3- Reconstruct students' scientific concepts.

(2) Objectives:

By the end of the training program teachers should be able to:

1- Understand the four levels of scientific literacy.

2- Determine the difficulties that science teachers face in a classroom.

3- Recognize the HEL’s strategy.

4- Apply simple, economic and effective experiments.

5- Understand how to arrange the experiments for conceptual reforms.

6- Understand how to manage lessons in conceptual reforms.

7- Recognize the roles of discussion in HEL.

8- Apply microteaching.

9- Understand how to reconstruct misconception into scientific concepts.

10- Do workshops on scientific concepts.

11- Recognize the prohibitions in the HEL’s strategy.

12- Understand how to evaluate students in the HEL’s strategy.

13- Know the framework of the new teacher’s guidebooks.

14- Understand how to prepare experimental materials.

15- Understand how to encourage deep and scientific thinking.

2-1-2 Content of the Training Program

The JICA and PPMU experts designed the syllabus of the training courses. It was five days of program

during the period of the summer vacation in 2003 and 2004 (Table 6). The program was divided in two parts

(Table 1). In the first part for three days, the Japanese trainer and cooperative Egyptian researchers of JICA

designed and instructed the program. In the second part for another two days, only Egyptian researchers of

PPMU designed and instructed the program. The first part contained nine lectures and six workshops

according to the HEL’s strategy.

The core content of the first day of the program was “Misconception Strategy” as a new theory of

teaching science in Egypt. The “Misconception strategy” is an understandable name of the HEL’s strategy for

the trainees. It suggested the same meaning as the HEL’s strategy. In the forth program of the first day titled in

“1-4 Arrangement of Experiments for Conceptual Study”, Japanese expert theoretically lectured how to

arrange a series of related experiments to discover the student’s misconception.

The core content of the second days was how to manage and control the science lessons according to the

HEL’s strategy. The lecture of the “2-1 Management of Lessons in Conceptual Study” concerned how to

manage the lessons. The lecture of the “2-2 Roles of Discussion in Lessons” concerned the importance of

students’ discussion for teachers to discover students’ misconception and how to encourage students’

discussion. The lecture of the “2-4 Reconstruction of Misconception into Scientific Concept” concerned how

to reform students’ misconception into appropriate scientific concept. These three lectures explained the

theoretical and methodological core of the HEL’s strategy.

The core content of the third day was how to encourage students’ thinking, the prohibition of the HEL’s

strategy and how to use the teachers’ guide in Arabic that was provided by PPMU. The lecture of the “3-1.

Prohibition in the New Strategy” explained the restriction and the attention to an indiscriminately use of the

HEL’s strategy. The lecture of the “3-2 Evaluation to Encourage Deep and Scientific Thinking” made clear

the necessary conditions and the environment in a classroom that enable the effective and cooperative study in

a basic scientific concept according to the HEL’s strategy.

The workshops in the first three days; “Air and Water”, “Photosynthesis”, “Air Components”,

“Germination”, “Circuit”, “Metals” “Battery” “Magnet” and “Clip Motor” demonstrated the HEL’s strategy

practically. Each workshop of the first three days was managed as the role-playing of a typical model lesson in

a moot classroom where the JICA or NCERD trainer and the trainees performed a teacher and the students

respectively. Most of all the workshops were designed to make each trainees discover his/her own

misconception and reform it into appropriate scientific concept.

The second part for two days of the program contained multiple and orthodox methods of science

instruction such as brain storming, role-playing, cooperative learning and problem solving. In this report, only

the first part for three days of the training program by JICA expert was evaluated.

Table 1 The syllabus of the cooperative training program by JICA and PPMU

The First Part of the Training Program

Day The Title of the Program Trainers Time

1st day: Science Literacy for All Egyptian Students

- Misconception Strategy as a New Theory of Teaching -

1-1. Concept of “Science Literacy”

1-2. Difficulties of Science Teachers

(break)

1-3. Workshop 1; Microteaching “Air and Water”

(lunch)

1-4. Arrangement of Experiments for Conceptual Study

1-5. Workshop 2; Microteaching “Photosynthesis ”

JICA

09:00-10:30

10:30-11:30

11:30-12:00

12:00-14:00

14:00-15:00

15:00-16:15

16:30-18:00

2nd day: Way of Management and Control of Science Lessons

2-1. Management of Lessons in Conceptual Study

2-2. Roles of Discussion in Lessons; “Carbon dioxide”

(break)

2-3. Workshop 3; Microteaching “Air Components” “Germination”

(lunch)

2-4. Reconstruction of Misconception into Scientific Concept

2-5. Workshop 4; Microteaching “Circuit” “Metals” “Battery”

JICA

09:00-10:30

10:30-11:30

11:30-12:00

12:00-14:00

14:00-15:00

15:00-16:15

16:30-18:00

3rd day: Framework and the Strategies of the New Teachers Guide

- High Levels of Thinking by Economic Experiments -

3-1. Prohibition in the New Strategy

3-2. Evaluation to Encourage Deep and Scientific Thinking

(break)

3-3. Frame of the New Science Teachers Guidebook

(lunch)

3-4. Workshop 5; How to Prepare Experimental Materials?

3-5. Workshop 6; “Magnet” “Clip Motor”

JICA

09:00-10:30

10:30-11:30

11:30-12:00

12:00-14:00

14:00-15:00

15:00-16:15

16:30-18:00

The Second Part of the Training Program

Day The Title of the Program Trainers Time

4th day:

4-1. Brain Storming

4-2. Role-Playing

4-3. Science Concepts

(break)

4-4. Cooperative Learning

4-5. Qualitative Techniques

(lunch)

4-6. Discussion Strategy

4-7. Problem Solving

PPMU

08:30-09:30

09:30-10:30

10:30-11:30

11:30-12:00

12:00-13:00

13:00-14:00

14:00-15:00

15:00-16:30

16:30-18:00

5th day:

5-1. Learning Cycle

5-2. Decision Making

(break)

5-3. Decision Making

5-4. Evaluation

(lunch)

5-5. Evaluation

5-6. Follow-Up

PPMU

08:30-10:30

10:30-11:30

11:30-12:00

12:00-13:00

13:00-14:00

14:00-15:00

15:00-16:00

16:00-18:00

2-1-3 Tools and Materials

For the practical instruction of the six workshops, PPMU provided each trainee a set of teaching materials and

tools package in a small plastic box (Table 2). The JICA trainers arranged the set and collected these materials

and tools from the city markets in Cairo. One set of materials and tools cost 21.9 Egyptian Pounds (about $5)

for individual trainees. These materials enabled the trainees to make the same experimental tools as the JICA

trainers used in the workshops. The trainers also instructed how to make the experimental tools and how to

demonstrate the experiments successfully in each workshop.

Table 2 The provided materials and tools

No. Materials and Tools Number Price (L.E.) Market in Cairo

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

Plastic tool box

Crocodile electrical clip

Electrical friction tape

Cutter knife

Blade of cutter knife

Steel magnet

Radio pliers

Sand paper

Steel wool

Aluminum foil

Melody letter card

Electrical line

Short steel nail

Long steel nail

Copper motor wire 0.5 mm

Copper motor wire 0.3 mm

Metal saw blade

1 piece

4 piece

1 roll

1 piece

1 box

1 piece

1 pair

1 sheet

1 piece

1 sheet

1 piece

2 meter

10 piece

5 piece

2meter

3meter

half

4.00

3.40

1.25

2.00

1.75

0.50

3.00

0.10

0.10

0.10

2.50

0.50

0.10

0.10

1.00

1.00

0.50

Midan Al-Ataba

Midan Al-Falaky

Midan Orabi

Midan Al-Ataba

Midan Al-Ataba

Al-Azhar St.

Al-Azhar St.

Nagib Al-Rihani St.

Al-Azhar St.

Midan Al-Ataba

Midan Al-Ataba

Nagib Al-Rihani St.

Al-Azhar St.

Al-Azhar St.

Nagib Al-Rihani St.

Nagib Al-Rihani St.

Nagib Al-Rihani St.

Total 21.90 L.E.*

*One Egyptian pound balanced nearly 0.23 US dollar in 2004. One set of the materials and tools cost about 5 US dollars.

2-1-4 Evaluation:

The impacts and the effects of the training program on the trainees were monitored longitudinally (Table

3). The post training survey was performed at the end of each training course by a sheet of questionnaire

(Table 4) directly. The original questionnaire was written in English, but it was orally translated into Arabic by

the request from the trainees. The surveyor gave enough time to the trainees before filling in the questionnaire

sheet, and collected them by hand.

The follow up survey on all the trainees was performed simultaneously in April in 2006. It had passed 2.5

year and 1.5 years since the training for the trainees of 2003 and 2004 respectively. The surveyor could follow

the addresses of only 13 into 48 (27.1%) trainees in 2003 and 56 into 59 (94.9%) trainees in 2004. The

surveyor send the follow up survey questionnaires (Table 5) to only the trainees known in address by the

Egyptian domestic mails from the central post office in Cairo with a set of return addressed envelop and

stamp. The follow up survey questionnaire was designed in English

Table 3 Schedule and method of the questionnaire surveys

Name of the

survey

Course

number

Years after the

training

Date of the

surveying Method of contact

Language of the

questions

Post training

survey

2003-1

2003-2 0.0 year

2003 July

2003 August Directly by hand

English with oral

Arabic translation 2004-1

2004-2

2004 July

2004 August

Follow up

survey

2003-1

2003-2 2.5 years

2006 April By domestic mail

and telephone Arabic

2004-1

2004-2 1.5 years

originally, but the sent questionnaire for the trainees was translated in Arabic. The surveyor telephoned only

the trainees who had not responded to the mail contact after one month of sending the letters. The trainees

who had not received the mail or had not sent back the return mail were interviewed for the following survey

by telephone.

3. Research Tools

3-1. Post-training survey

The post-training survey questionnaire (Table 4) was divided in two fields of questions. The questions from

Q1 to Q10 were for evaluating the appropriateness of the contents, and the questions from Q11 to Q15 (in

2004) were for the appropriateness of the method of instruction in the training program. All the questions had

five scaled answer choices except the column of asking free comments from the trainees. The responses to all

the questions from the trainees were translated into the percentage scores according to the five degreed scales:

100%, 75%, 50%, 25% and 0%. The most positive answer responding to “strongly yes” was valued at 100%,

and the most negative answer responding to “strongly no” was valued at 0%. The mean value and the

confidence value of each group of the trainees were calculated and statistically analyzed (Fig.3).

Table 4 The post-training survey questionnaire in 2003 and 2004

Choices of all the questions a. strongly yes b. yes c. I don’t know d. no e. strongly no

Contents of the training program

Q1. Do you agree on the importance of “Science Literacy” for Egyptian students?

Q2. Did you find your own level of “Science Literacy”?

Q3. Did you understand how to make improve your level of “Science Literacy”?

Q4. Did you understand the ideas of two strategies of the new Teachers’ Guidebook?

Q5. Do you agree that two strategies of the new Teachers’ Guidebook are effective for conceptual study in science?

Q6. Can you make the same kinds of experimental science lessons in your class?

Q7. Can you design original experimental science lessons for your students by yourself?

Q8. Do you agree the important role of science history in science study?

Q9. Do you agree what type of evaluation can encourage students?

Q10. Do you agree what are prohibited in Misconception strategy?

Teaching method and materials

Q11. Do you agree the effectiveness of the new strategies of experimental science lessons all through the activities of

microteaching?

Q12. Do you agree that this kind of activities of microteaching is useful for school-based training of young teachers in your school?

Q13. Do you agree that this kind of activities of microteaching is useful for your science lessons in your class?

Q14. Do you agree the materials provided in this seminar are useful for your instruction in a future?

*Q15. Do you agree that the video scenes of lessons observed in this seminar are useful for your instruction in a future?

* Q15 was applied only in 2004.

3-2. Follow up survey

The questions of the follow up survey questionnaire were designed into three styles (Table 5). The first

style of the questions had five answer choices. The responses to Q1-Q7 questions were translated into the

percentage scores according to the evaluation scale in five degrees from 100% for the most positive answer to

0% for the most negative answer (Table 9). These scores were used for measuring the satisfaction degrees for

each question and correlation analysis between the questions.

The second style of the questions had different series of answer choices that had no scale and can be

selected plural choices. The questions from Q8 to Q13 were used for finding reasons and analyzing

correlations between the questions. The third style of the question was for requiring a free writing. The last

column of Q12 and Q13 asked free comments or requests other than the given choices.

Table 5 The follow up survey questionnaire in 2006

Choose one answer in Q1-Q7.

Q1. Can you say that the training program by PPMU-JICA helped you on instructing science classes?

a. strongly yes b. yes c. I don’t know d. no e. strongly no

Q2. Can you apply the new teaching strategy of experimental lessons in your science classes in this school year

(Sep.2005~May 2006)?

a. strongly yes b. yes c. I don’t know d. no e. strongly no

Q3. How many times did you apply the new teaching strategy in this school year?

a. 0 b. 1~5 c. 6-10 d. 11~20 e. More than 30

Q4. How many misconceptions have you found in your science classes since the PPMU-JICA training? e. More than 30

a. 0 b. 1~5 c. 6-10 d. 11~20 e. More than 30

Q5. How often do you ask your students the reasons why they select each answer for your questions when you apply the new

teaching strategy in this school year (Sep.2005~May 2006)

a. I never ask the reasons.

b. I ask the reason in a few times.

c. I sometimes ask the reasons.

d. I ask the reasons at least once in a class.

e. I ask the reasons in most of all my classes.

Q6. How many times have you instructed the new teaching strategy to other persons since the PPMU-JICA training?

a. 0 b. 1~5 c. 6-10 d. 11~20 e. More than 30

Q7. Did one box of experimental materials provided by JICA help your instruction?

a. strongly yes b. yes c. I don’t know d. no e. strongly no

Choose any answers in Q8-Q13.

Q8. What kind of the persons and how many persons have you instructed the new teaching strategy since the PPMU-JICA

training?

a. I instructed nobody

b. My colleague science teacher : ( )

c. My colleague of other subjects : ( )

d. science teachers in the “edara” : ( )

e. Science inspectors or administrators in “edara” : ( )

f. Other persons and numbers:

Q9 If the program of the PPMU-JICA training help you in some, what contents are useful for you?

a. Lecture of “science literacy”

b. Lecture of “how to reconstruct misconception into science concepts”

c. Lecture of “how to evaluate science lesson by the rate of correct answer”

d. Lecture of “how to encourage students’ deep thinking”

e. Five workshops of “how to make experimental lesson”

f. Comparison of Japanese and Egyptian science classes by video.

g. How to use the provided one box of experimental materials and tools such as nipper, metal plates, melody card, magnet,

electrical wire or so.

h. The provided green covered book on the new strategy.

i. The provided videotape.

Q10. If you could not apply the new teaching strategy in this school year, why didn’t you apply?

a. Because I didn’t teach elementary science in this year.

b. Because I didn’t have enough time. Science curriculum is too busy to apply the new strategy.

c. Because my inspector or school manager did not agree to apply the new strategy.

d. Because I didn’t have enough teaching tools and materials.

e. Because I’m not enough trained to do experiments successfully.

f. Because it was too difficult for me to design or arrange the suitable teaching plans by myself.

Q11. If the provided teaching materials were consumed off, how can you get them again?

a. I ask the school manager to buy them by our school finance.

b. I ask my students to bring them from their homes.

c. I have to buy them by my pocket money.

d. I cannot get them again.

Q12. What request do you have now?

a. I need more time to prepare and to apply the new strategy.

b. I want to apply the new strategy without too heavy control by our inspectors.

c. I need follow up training to apply the new strategy.

d. I need more teaching plans designed for our curriculum.

e. I some information from the trainees working well in Egyptian schools.

f. I need more materials and equipment for experimenting. What materials and tools do you need?

g. Other requests: (If you have more requests, you can write in the following blank box.)

Q13. What impacts have appeared on you and your pupils by the new strategy?

a. I can enjoy lessons and the motivation of myself to do science lesson became higher.

b. My pupils enjoy lessons and the motivation of their science study became higher.

c. The test score of science of my pupils improved.

d. My pupils attend school more than before because they want to attend my science class.

e. The parents of pupils welcome the science lesson in the new strategy.

There are other impacts by the new strategy:(Write both positive and negative impacts in the box.)

4. Experimental Design

4-1. Group of study (Trainees)

PPMU and JICA designed and practiced four training courses on the multiple instruction methods in science

education for Egyptian primary teachers in 2003 and 2004 (Table 6). The experts of PPMU and JICA

cooperatively trained normal primary science teachers who were nominated randomly from twenty-seven

governorates in whole Egypt. One or two trainees from each different governorate were equally mixed

together in all the courses.

Table 6 Cooperative training courses by PPMU and JICA

Course number Period of the training JICA PPMU Place of the training Number of trainees

2003-1

2003-2

27-31 July, 2003

3-7 August, 2003

3 days

3 days

2 days

2 days

Kanater, Khireya

Kanater, Khireya

23

25

2004-1

2004-2

25-29 July, 2004

1-5 August, 2004

3 days

3 days

2 days

2 days

Aguza, Cairo

Aguza, Cairo

29

30

Total 107

4-2. Application of Research Tools

The response rates of the post-training questionnaire (Table 7) showed 100% in all groups of the training

courses. We asked the trainees to fill in the questionnaire sheets at the end of the third day of each training

course. Egyptian researchers vocally translated the English questionnaire into Arabic for the trainees who

were poor in English well.

Also, the contacted trainees showed high response to the follow up questionnaire (Table 8). The response

rate from the contacted trainees indicated 90.8% in substantial. Because many of the trainees had changed

their addresses during 2.5 or 1.5 years since the training, we could follow the address of only 13 trainees of

2003 group and 56 trainees of 2004 group. We send the follow up survey questionnaires to all of them by

domestic mail. The response rates of the successfully contacted trainees were 83.3% in 2003 group and

92.4% in 2004 group. As the result, 59 out of 107 total trainees responded to the follow up questionnaire. We

could finally follow 55.1% of all the trainees by the survey in 2006.

Two trainees who attended the same training program in both 2003 and 2004 were treated as the trainees

of 2004 group. And we did not count all the data of the three trainees who were continuously trained more

than half a year by JICA experts in 2004 because they had a different back ground from other trainees.

Table 7 Responses to the post training questionnaire surveys in 2003 and 2004

Trained

year

Period since

the training

Period of

training

Contact

method

Question

language

Training place

(district)

Contact

number

Response

number

Response

rate %

2003 0.0 years 27-31 July

3-7 August Interview

English

& Arabic

Science

Exploration

Center

23

25

23

25

100.0

100.0

Subtotal (Kanater,

Khireya) 48 48

2004 0.0 years 25-29 July

1-5 Augst Interview

English

& Arabic Student Union

29

30

29

30

100.0

100.0

Subtotal (Aguza, Cairo) 59 59

Total 107 107

Table 8 Responses to the follow up questionnaire survey in 2006

Trained

year

Period since

the training

Period of

survey

Contact

method

Question

language

Successful

contact

Missed

contact

Substantial

response

Response

rate* %

2003 2.5 years April~May,

2006

Mail &

telephone Arabic 12 (13)** 36 10 83.3

2004 1.5 years April~May,

2006

Mail &

telephone Arabic 53 (56)** 59 49 92.4

Total 65 (89)** 42 59 90.8

*The response rates were calculated from the substantial response per successful contact.

**The values in parentheses show the numbers of send mails for contacting to the trainees.

4-3. Data Analysis

The responded answers in Q1-Q7 were valued into the scores of percentage according to the scale of

satisfaction (Table 9). The most expected answers were valued into 100%. The least expected answers were

valued into 0%. The mean values of all the responded trainees to each question and the values of correlation

efficiency between each question were calculated and analyzed by Microsoft Excel.

Table 9 Evaluation scale of the score of Q1-Q7 in the follow up survey

No. Contents 100% 75% 50% 25% 0%

Q1 Usefulness of the

training program

a. strongly yes b. yes c. I don’t know d. no e. strongly no

Q2 Practical application of

the new strategy

a. strongly yes b. yes c. I don’t know d. no e.strongly no

Q3 Frequency of application

of the new strategy

e. More than 30 d. 11~20 c. 6~10 b. 1~5 a. 0

Q4 Frequency of discovery of

misconception

e. More than 30 d. 11~20 c. 6~10 b. 1~5 a. 0

Q5 Frequency of asking

reasons to students

e. I ask the

reasons in most

of all my classes.

d. I ask the

reasons at least

once in a class.

c. I sometimes

ask the

reasons

b. I ask the

reason in a

few times.

a. I never ask

the reasons.

Q6 Frequency of instructing

to other persons

e. More than 30 d. 11~20 c. 6~10 b. 1~5 a. 0

Q7 Usefulness of the

provided materials

a. strongly yes b. yes c. I don’t know d. no e.strongly no

5. Results

5-1. The result of the post training questionnaire surveys

The average scores of all the questions in the post-training questionnaire surveys (Fig.3) indicated 84.7%

in 2003 and 79.9% in 2004. This means that the trainees generally “strongly agree” or “agree” on the training

program in total. The average score was higher in 2004 than in 2003. But there was no significant difference

in statistics between both groups. The post-training survey questions were designed into two groups of

questions. The questions from Q1 to Q10 concern the appropriateness of the contents of the training program.

And the questions from Q11 to Q15 concern the appropriateness of the applied method of the training

program. Both of these two groups of the questions indicated higher score than 75% in average. This means

most of all the trainees “agree” on both the contents and the method of the training program.

The highest scored question was Q1 that asked the “the importance of the scientific literacy for all

Egyptian students”. The questions that scored higher than 85% in 2003 were Q6 and Q14 asking “the

possibility of making the same kinds of experimental science lesson” and “the agreement on the usefulness of

the provided materials” respectively. These two questions asked whether the trainees practically agreed on the

new strategy.

The questions scored lower than 75% in 2004 group were Q9 and Q10 that asked “the suitable evaluation

encouraging students” and “the prohibition of the new strategy”. These two questions required a higher level

of theoretical decision make.

Fig.3 Evaluation by the post-training questionnaire in 2003 and 2004 n=48 (2003) n=59 (2004)

* Q15 is only in 2004 Bar shows the confidence value (α＝0.05).

There is no significant difference between the average scores of 2003 and 2004.

5-2. The result of the follow up questionnaire survey

5-2-1 Responses to the questions

The results of the follow up survey questionnaire were translated in the pie charts (Fig.4). The percentage

showed the frequency of each answer choice.

Q1 asked the usefulness of the training program. The trainees who strongly agreed or agreed on the

usefulness accounted for 57.6% and 37.3% of all respectively. The training program was totally approved by

94.9% (34/59) of all. Only three answered, “I cannot say”. None of the responded trainees disagreed on the

training program.

Q2 asked the possibility of a practical application of the new strategy in science classes. The responded

trainees who strongly agreed and agreed on the possibility accounted for 93.2% (55/59) of all. Only four

answered that they could not apply the strategy.

Q3 asked the frequency of applying the new strategy in the last school year. The major answer that

accounted for 37.3% was between 11 to 20 times in the year. The responded trainees who applied the new

strategy more than 20 times accounted for 8.5% of all. In total, 91.5% (54/59) of the responded trainees

applied the strategy. Only five did not apply the strategy.

Q4 asked the frequency of the discovered misconception. The trainees who discovered any

misconception accounted for 91.4% (54/59) of all. Only five trainees answered that they did not discover

misconception.

Q5 asked the frequency of asking reason of the answer from students in lessons. The responded trainees

who ask reason in most of all lessons accounted for 64.4% of all. The answer of asking reason in “a few

times”, “sometimes” and “once in a class” accounted for 8.5%, 10.2% and 10.2% respectively. Only four of

the responded trainees answered that they never ask reason.

Q6 asked the frequency of giving instruction in the new strategy to other persons. The trainees who gave

instruction to others accounted for 75.9% (45/59) of all. There were fourteen trainees who did not give

instruction to others. They accounted for 24.1% of all.

Q7 asked the usefulness of the provided materials for making experiments in science classes. The

responded trainees who strongly agree and agree on the provided materials accounted for 40.7% and 42.4%

respectively. The usefulness of the packaged materials was agreed with 83.1% (49/59) of all the responded

trainees. Only three of responded trainees disagreed on the usefulness of the materials.

Q8 asked the persons whom the responded trainees had given instruction in the new strategy since the

training. The trainees gave instruction to the variety of persons who were colleague science teachers, the

colleague teachers of other subjects, the science teachers of other schools, the science inspectors and others.

They accounted for 45.5%, 19.3%, 9.1%, 4.5% and 8.0% of all the answers respectively.

Q9 asked the useful contents of the training program. The responded trainees equally agreed on the

usefulness of all the contents of the training program. The content of “how to reconstruct students’

misconception” was most agreed with14.3% of all the answers.

Q10 asked the reason why the trainees could not use the new strategy if they were disturbed to use it. The

responded trainees complained about different obstacles such as the shortage of materials in 27.0%, the

shortage of lesson time in 25.7%, not enough training of their own in 17.6%, not enough supply of teaching

plans and inspector’s disturbance in 9.5% of all the answers.

Q11 asked how the trainees obtained the materials for the new strategy if they were consumed. The

major answer accounting for 46.5% was buying the materials by their own pocket money. Other sources of

the materials were students’ home or school finance.

Q12 asked the requests the trainees had for applying the new strategy. The major requests accounting for

22.4% and 20.9% of all the answers were more training and more teaching plans on the new strategy. And

there were many other kinds of requests that were for more information of the trainees who were working

well, more materials for the strategy, more lesson time to apply the strategy and more flexible way of

instruction for inspectors. They accounted for 17.9%, 11.4%, 10.9% and 6% of all the answers respectively.

Q13 asked the changes that appeared on the trainees or the students. The major changes accounting for

25.2% and 24.8% respectively were the enjoyment of students and enjoyment of the teacher in science class.

Other changes were higher attendance to science lessons, the improvement in score tests, 17.8%, 13.4% and

9.9%.2-2 Scores of the valued questions

The chosen answers by all the responded trainees to the question Q1-Q7 were calculated into the scores

of 100% in full scale (Table 10) that indicates the satisfaction degree to the expected level (Table 9). The

highest average score is 88.1% in Q1. The higher scores than 75% indicating the “agree” level were in Q1,

Q2 Q5 and Q7. The low scores nearly 50% that is indicating the frequency of “6 ~10 times” were in Q3 and

Q4. The lowest scores was 31.9% in Q6 that indicates the “1~5 times” of instruction to others since the

training. The average score of Q1-Q7 was 65.8%.

The lowest standard deviation was 14.9% in Q1 that asked the usefulness of the training program. The

relatively lower standard deviations were Q7 and Q2 that asked the usefulness of the provided materials and

the practical application of the new strategy respectively. The largest standard deviation was 31.6% in Q5 that

asked the frequency of asking reasons in science classes. The average standard deviation of Q1-Q7 was

31.4%.

Fig.4 Answer distributions to the questions in the follow up survey questionnaire in 2006 n=59

Q1 Did the new strategy help your

instruction?

5.1%

57.6%

37.3%

Strongly yes

Yes

?

No

Asrongly no

Q2 Could you apply the new strategy

in this year?

6.8%

72.9%

20.3%

Strongly yes

Yes

?

No

Asrongly no

Q3 How many times did you apply

the new strategy in this year ?

37.3%

22.0%

8.5%8.5%

23.7%

0

1-5

6-10

11-20

20<

Q4 How many misconception did you

find in your instruction?

19.0%

12.1%

34.5%

25.9%

8.6%

0

1-5

6-10

11-20

20<

Q5 How often did you ask the reason

to your students?

10.2%

10.2%

64.4%

8.5%

6.8%

Never

A few times

Sometimes

Once in a class

Most of all

Q6 How many times did you

instructed the strategy to

10.3%

10.3%

6.9%

48.3%

24.1%0

1-5

6-10

11-20

20<

Q7 Did one box of materials helped

your instruction in sciecne?

11.9%

5.1%

42.4%

40.7%Strongly yes

Yes

?

No

Asrongly no

Q8 Whom did you instructed the new

strategy?

19.3%

9.1%

4.5%

8.0%

45.5%

13.6%

Nobody

Colleague Science

Other Colleague

Other School

Science Inspector

Others

Q9 What contents helped your

instruction in science?

7.3%11.1%

12.6%

13.5%13.5%

7.6%

10.2%

14.3%

9.9% Science

LiteracyMisconception

Evaluate Class

Encouraging

Workshops

Compare

VideoUse Materials

Teachers

GuideVideo Tape

Q10 Why didn't you apply the new

strategy if you didn't use it?

17.6%

9.5%

27.0% 9.5%

10.8%

25.7%

Not primary

Less time

Inspector disturb

Less materials

Less trained

Less plans

Q11 How can you get the consumed

materials?

46.5%

23.2%

30.3%

School finance

Student' home

Pocket money

I can't get

Q12 What requests do you have for

applying the new strategy ?

11.4%

22.4%17.9%

10.4%

20.9%

10.9%

6.0%

More time

Flexibility

More training

More plans

Information

More materials

Others

Q13 What changes appeared on you

and you students?

9.9%

17.8%

13.4%

8.9%

25.2%

24.8% Teacher enjoy

Pupils enjoy

Score improve

High attend

Parents welcome

Other possitive

Table 10 Scores of Q1-Q7 in the follow up survey questionnaire

No. Content of the question Indicating level of the

Average score

Average

score

Standard

deviation

Q1 Usefulness of the training strongly agree 88.1 14.9

Q2 Practical application of the strategy agree 76.7 17.3

Q3 Frequency of application of the strategy 6~10 times in a year 53.4 28.4

Q4 Frequency of misconception’s discovery 6~10 times since the training 50.0 28.5

Q5 Frequency of asking reasons At least once in a class 79.7 31.6

Q6 Frequency of instructing to others 1~5 times since the training 31.9 28.8

Q7 Usefulness of the provided materials agree 79.7 21.0

Total Average of Q1-Q7 65.8 31.4

5-2-2 Correlation between the valued questions

The correlation efficiencies were calculated in a table from Q1 to Q7 (Table 11). Highly significant levels

(99%) of correlations were observed in the seven combinations of the questions : Q3-Q4, Q2-Q3, Q1-Q2,

Q4-Q6, Q3-Q5, Q4-Q5 and Q1-Q4. And normal significant levels (95%) of correlations were observed in

the six combinations : Q3-Q6, Q1-Q3, Q2-Q5, Q2-Q4, Q1-Q7 and Q1-Q6. Only the correlation between Q4

and Q7 showed minus efficiency in -0.018.

The high correlation efficiencies between the seven pairs of questions suggest the strong correlations in

the following order:

1- The more the trainees applied the HEL’s strategy, the more misconceptions they found.

2- The more the trainees could apply the HEL’s strategy, the more they apply it practically.

3- The more the trainees agreed on the usefulness of the training program, the more they applied the HEL’s

strategy.

4- The more misconception the trainees found, the more they instructed it to other persons.

5- The more the trainees applied the HEL’s strategy, the more they asked reasons of students’ answers.

6- The more the trainees found students’ misconception, the more they asked reasons of students’ answers.

7- The more the trainees agreed on the usefulness of the training program, the more they found students’

misconception.

And the normally significant levels of correlation efficiencies between the six pairs of questions suggest

the correlations in the following order :

1- The more the trainees applied the HEL’s strategy, the more they instruct other persons on the strategy.

2- The more the trainees agreed on the usefulness of the training program, the more they applied the HEL’s

strategy.

3- The more the trainees could apply the HEL’s strategy, the more they asked reasons of students’ answers.

4- The more the trainees could apply the HEL’s strategy, the more they found students’ misconception.

5- The more the trainees agreed on the usefulness of the training program, the more they used the provided

materials for experiments.

6- The more the trainees agreed on the usefulness of the training program, the more they instruct other

persons on the strategy.

Table 11 Correlation between the valued questions

No. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7

Q1 1

Q2 0.455 1

Q3 0.299 0.515 1

Q4 0.334 0.287 0.578 1

Q5 0.216 0.293 0.357 0.353 1

Q6 0.266 0.238 0.303 0.455 0.285 1

Q7 0.282 0.126 0.136 -0.018 0.128 0.125 1

Underlined number shows that the correlation has statistically 99% of reliability.

Italic number shows that the correlation has statistically 95% of reliability.

5-2-3 Free comments from the trainees in the long-term post survey

(1) Other trainees

There were six free comments on Q8. Other persons whom the trainees instructed the HEL’s strategy

were the teachers of other subject or other stage such as a preparatory teacher and the educational

management staff such as a school manager, directorate manager and under secretary staff. There is only one

free comment (O1) on Q11. The trainee borrowed the necessary materials for the experiments in the HEL’s

strategy from the science lab of his school.

(2) Other requests

There were thirty-two free comments from the responded trainees on Q12. They proposed three kinds of

major requests for applying the HEL’s strategy. The first major request was the systematic modification of the

Egyptian primary science such as a modification of the curriculum to keep enough time to apply the HEL’s

strategy (G1, G2, G3 and G27).

The second major request was the special aids for applying the HEL’s strategy such as the supply of a

textbook or a guidebook for the HEL’s strategy accommodating to the Egyptian curriculum (G4, G5, G7,

G13, G15 and G20), a further training courses disseminating the HEL’s strategy (G8, G9, G10, G28, G29,

G30 and G32), more chance to communicate and to exchange the information and experience between the

trainees such as a meeting, a conference and a web-site of the HEL’s strategy (G11, G20, G21 and G22) and

more supports by the educational administrators such as an inspector, a staff of MOE and an assistant teacher

(G6, G23, G24 and G25).

The third major request was the improvement of the school environment and better working condition of

Egyptian science teachers. They required well equipped science lab (G12 and G26) and more supply of the

materials and the equipment for the HEL’s strategy . (G12, G16 and G19).

(3) Other positive changes

There were thirty-one positive free comments from the responded trainees on Q13. The positive aspects

of the changes were classified into four categories. The first category was a positive change in students’

motivation or performance. Many of the trainees commented that a lot of improvement of the performance

had appeared on the students (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P12, P13, P17, P19, P22, P26 and P29) and they love

science and enjoy science classes (P1, P2, P4, P17 and P29).

The second category of the positive changes was the achievement and improvement of the students on

the performance and the behavior in science study. The trainees commented that the students had become

more social in communicating in a classroom (P8), more organized and cooperated (P14, P15, P16), more

self-confident (P10).

The third category was the achievement of scientific knowledge and skills of the students. The trainees

commented that the students achieved in knowledge and concepts (P11, P20, P22, P24 and P31), in thinking

skill and imagination (P6, P7 and P9).

(4) Other negative changes

The number of other negative comments was smaller than the number of other positive comments.

There were thirteen negative comments from the responded trainees. The negative comments were classified

in two categories. The first category was the difficulty of the environment in Egyptian classrooms such as the

shortage of equipment (N2), a shortage of lesson time (N5 and N6), a big number of students in a classroom

(N1). The second category was the difficulty of the management in the HEL’s strategy. Some trainees

complained that it was too difficult for them to control the students and to teach the students who were weak

in science study (N3, N4, N7, N8 and N12).

(5) Difficulties

There were twenty-two free comments on the difficulties of applying the HEL’s strategy from the

responded trainees. The most critical opinion to the strategy was the comment on the environment and the

condition of Egyptian classroom (D1, D4, D5, D6, D9, D10, D11, D12, D19, D21 and D22). They were

struggling with a shortage of science lab (D4 and D6), little lesson time (D5 and D22), little finance for

teachers (D11 and D12), a big number of classroom students (D9) and low achieved students (D11 and D21).

And they commented that the strategy conflicted to the time schedule of the Egyptian curriculum (D5, D14,

D15 and D17). Moreover, the interference with the HEL’s strategy by an educational administrator and

parents cannot be neglected (D7, D8, D13, D16, D18 and D20).

A trainee who became an inspector after the training on the HEL’s strategy commented that she was

encouraging teachers to apply the strategy. She trained the normal teachers by demonstrating HEL in their

classes where she was responsible. And she had trained many teachers on the strategies.

Table 12 Free comments from the trainees in Q8, Q13 of the long-term survey

Q8 What kind of the persons and how many persons have you instructed the new teaching strategy since the PPMU-JICA

training?

f. Other instructed persons by the trainees

F1. Laboratory warehouseman

F2. Activity teachers

F3. Math teachers

F4. School manager and under secretary staff

F5. Educational directorate manger

F6. Preparatory school teachers

Q11 If the provided teaching materials were consumed off, how can you get them again?

Other sources of consumed materials

O1. If my box material finished I can borrow from school science lab.

Q12 What requests do you have for applying the new strategy?

g. Other teachers’ needs

G1. Re-planning science curriculum to be suitable to apply this strategy.

G2. Including new concepts in our curriculum and avoid old subjects.

G3. Determine effective timetable for applying the science curriculum.

G4. Re writing science textbooks to avoid writing results of activity.

G5. Teacher guidebook to apply this strategy. Clear and well prepared guidebook.

G6. Generalization of this strategy by the aid of educational governorates and inspectors to support applying this strategy in all

classes.

G7. Combine science textbook with activity book in one book.

G8. More training are very needed for teachers and for our colleagues who did not attend the previous training.

G9. Teachers need follow up training and very strict, and intensive training.

G10. Training on Languages and computers. More training on this strategy. Training on developing activities and teaching

strategies.

G11. Effective communication between teachers and trainees and make open channels between them.

G12. Preparing effective science lab. With good equipments.

G13. More teaching plans for many subjects such as: Chemistry (gases), biology (vertebrates, non vertebrates), physics (magnets)

G14. More experiments for (magnets, sound, light, heat)

G15. Booklets for teaching methods and teaching ideas in science.

G16. Found electronic materials and using home work sheets for students to help them continue work on science at home.

G17. Decreases student numbers in the class.

G18. More follow up from the inspectors.

G19. Completing shortage in material and tools and equipments.

G20. To supply us by the new and useful booklet and website in this strategy.

G21. Held national conference to discuss Primary education problems.

G22. Held meeting between teachers and education experts.

G23. High administration level of the MOE has to adopt this strategy because implementation always starts from the top.

G24. MOE must care about innovation in education.

G25. Has to find assistance teacher for science teacher to help him during doing group work and experiments.

G26. Increasing space for science laboratory with enough equipment and furniture.

G27. Increase time of science classes and it will be better to have 2 classes in a raw in one day. Increasing science teaching time in 4th,

5th, 6th grade to have chance to apply the new teaching strategy.

G28. Having training course on this strategy in Japan.

G29. Spread this strategy to all Egyptian teachers.

G30. Find all teachers who can support this strategy to spread it all over Egypt.

G31. To teach science instead of being class teacher.

G32. Academic training on science concepts such as mixture and compound.

Q13 What changes appeared on you and you students?

f. Other changes

Positive impact of the strategy

P1. Students feel happy when they know that they choose the correct answers, Students become more refresh in the class. Students

love science and become more on coming towards science and more concern about it. Students are very interest for the class and

they are waiting its time to attend it.

P2. This strategy depends on active learning and have more fun and exciting for students.

P3. Interesting and science class become better.

P4. Inspectors like this strategy.

P5. Make students more calm and expectant for result

P6. Help in developing thinking skills and turn students to be positive.

P7. Training students on scientific thinking and formulating hypotheses to achieve collect scientific facts, and it connects between

students and the environment.

P8. Creates dialogue between teacher and students and removes students fear.

P9. Students become more wise and reasonable before speaking and it lets them think deeply before answer the questions.

P10. Make students more self-confidence. It is an easy method and it contains many alternatives that encourage students to say

their ideas and opinions.

P11. Students achieve knowledge easily.

P12.Makes students more curious and pay more attention to the concept.

P13. Makes teachers and students more active and motivated for learning.

P14. Makes students more organized and respectable to others when answer questions or listen to other's answers.

P15. Students used to good organization with teachers and effective discussion and search for knowledge and information.

P16. Students care about bringing material that help in doing experiments in the classes

P17. Students level become higher and they love science.

P18. I become more convinced of the strategy more than any other method or other effective strategy.

P19. Students become like to do activity in their home.

P20. It helps medium level students to increase their level.

P21.It encourages me to help my students to repair their old toys by using wires and simple tools during activity lessons.

P22. Using KJJ helps me to change students’ concepts and it is better that doing nothing with them.

P23. Teacher and students become more concentrating and excited on science.

P24. Lead to good class management and achieve knowledge.

P25. It is so practical method.

P26. It considered as way of learning and students becomes active and positive.

P27. Some parents understand the strategy and they are welcome it and send gifts to our schools.

P28. Very valuable method in teaching science.

P29. This strategy is the best solution that let students love science.

P30, Suitable to our school condition and our environment.

P31. Correct students misconception is duty of every teacher, and it is suitable for achieving science goals.

Other Negative Impact of the strategy

N1. Difficult to apply this strategy with big number of students it is very frustrating to me.

N2. Difficult to find tools and means for applying these ideas in all lessons for all students because there is no balance.

N3. Less effective when students tell each other in different classes the result of experiments.

N4. Weak students become biased for excellent students opinion during choosing hypotheses and they cannot give reasons why

they choose these answers. I do not know how to avoid this problem.

N5. Needs more classes and time to be applied that overloads on teachers and increases teachers’ work.

N6. Time is short to complete one subject in one class.

N7. Some students do not share with us.

N8. Hard to discipline and difficult to control students and to organize them during work.

N9. I am still not used to apply this strategy.

N10. Students did not used to this strategy yet.

N11. I lost lots of information and how to apply it effectively after long time passed of training without follow up.

N12. It has no effect in very weak level students.

N13. Cannot be applied in all science lessons.

Other difficulties

D1. The strategy still limited and is not generalized in all schools.

D2. Some parents think that using this strategy will waste curriculum time.

D3. Inspectors always care only about and ask teachers to do lots or writing work in our notebooks and in students’ notebooks that

waste teachers’ time.

D4. Some teachers find difficulties of using science laboratory in their schools.

D5. Time is not enough to apply this strategy and I have to borrow many more classes to finish my curriculum.

D6. . There is no science lab in my school. Science lab is very old and not suitable for work.

D7. MOE staff are very strict about writing works and they care only about if I complete my notebooks or not more that the result of

my work with my students.

D8. Inspectors and school managers have no idea about this strategy.

D9. Students’ numbers are big which obstruct me to apply this strategy.

D10. Students are very weak in writing and reading abilities.

D11. We get little pound.

D12. Teacher training program never completed for finances reasons.

D13. There is always conflict between inspectors’ demands and teaching strategy.

D14. Curriculum time plan are not suitable to apply this strategy.

D15. Science curriculum is very long.

D16. There is no care of science in our primary school and school administrators consider it as secondary subject.

D17. This strategy is not suitable in our curriculum and test system so we have to change our curriculum and our test system to be

suitable to apply this method.

D18. There is problem with the hardness way of thinking of school managers and head masters.

D19. Difficult to hold a good training.

D20. Some parents do not understand the strategy and complain that their children care of science more than other subject. And

they fear that their sons to do experiment. They do not feel the result of applying this strategy.

D21. Some students cannot read and write.

D22. Working on science notebooks limits my time to work on science activities and experiments.

Inspector’s comments

I like this strategy and I encourage teachers to apply it in their classes and in all schools that I am responsible for. And I trained

many teachers on teaching strategies

6. Discussion

6-1. Appropriateness of the Training Program

The appropriateness of a training program should be evaluated from three aspects: the content, the

method and the materials of it. The trainees evaluated in the post training survey that most of all of them

agreed on the contents, the methods and materials of the training program.

The appropriateness of the contents of the training program was confirmed by the two facts in the post

training survey (Fig.3) : (1) None of the post training survey question from Q1 to Q10 evaluated the contents

disagreed. The lowest score of the questions on the contents was 72.9% in Q10. It corresponds to “agree” on

all the contents ; (2) The trainees evaluated that all the contents of the training program had helped their

science instruction equally in the follow up survey question of Q9. The trainees ignored no content.

The appropriateness of the method and materials of the training program was confirmed by the three

facts in the post training survey (Fig.3) : (1) All of the Q11, Q12, Q13 of the post training survey questions

scored higher than 80%. The trainees agreed on the effectiveness of microteaching as the training method ; (2)

The post training survey question of Q14 and Q15 scored higher than 75%. The trainees agreed on the

usefulness of both the packaged materials provided in the workshops and the video of the practical lesson

scenes ; (3) The Q7 of the follow up survey that asked the usefulness of the provided packaged materials

scored 79.7%. The 40.7% of the trainees strongly agreed, and the 42.4% of the trainees agreed on the

usefulness of the materials.

Moreover it can be said that the contents, the method and the materials were well arranged and balanced

each other in the training program because there was no clear difference between the scores of each question.

And the fact that there was no statistical difference between the average scores of total questions in 2003 and

2004 showed a stable and a satisfying effect of the training program on the trainees (Fig.3).

The perfect response rate in 100% (Table 9) in the post training survey and the relatively high response

rate at more than 80% (Table 10) in the follow up survey suggest that most of all the trainees accepted the

training program. We conclude that the training program by JICA expert in 2003 and 2004 was nearly

completed in contents, method and materials.

6-2. Accommodation of the HEL’s strategy

How did the HEL’s strategy sustain among the Egyptian trainees for a long period is an important

question for us though it had a strong impact on them in a short term.

The two facts confirmed in the follow up survey indicate a long sustainability of the HEL’s strategy in the

responded trainee. (1) The relatively high response rate more than 80% was observed in the follow up survey

though it had passed 1.5 or 2.5 years since the training (Table 10). (2) At least 48 trainees : 44.9% of whole

trainees ; 91.5% of the responded trainees answered to Q3 that they had not given up the application of the

strategy since the training struggling against many difficulties (Fig.3). And 45.8% of the responded trainees

answered to Q3 that they had applied the strategy more than 11 times in the school year. The performance of

more than 11 times of HEL in a year requires a great effort because the original JICA training program

demonstrated only nine kinds of experimental workshops (Table 3). The trainees who apply the strategy more

than 20 times a year should create a lot of original lesson plans by them selves. Five of the responded trainees ;

8.5% of the responded trainees ; 4.7% of whole the trainees answered that they applied the strategy more than

20 time a year.

A high response rate to the questionnaire surveys suggests not only a strong agreement on the HEL’s

strategy but also a high interest of the trainees in a dissemination of the strategy. A lot of spontaneous diffusion

of the strategy into others teachers were observed. The answer of Q8 in the follow up survey showed that at

least 42 trainees actively disseminated the strategy to his/her colleague teachers. Moreover, a wider extent of

the dissemination was observed. An effect of the strategy was not limited in a colleague or a close teacher. It

reached to the administration level such as a school manager, an inspector and other administration staff of an

education office (F4 and F5 in Table 12). Two trainees became the inspectors after the training. One of them

commented that she likes the strategy and she encouraged her directing teachers to apply it in all schools and

classes responsible for her. And she had trained many teachers on teaching the strategy. If such the leading

trainees will become an inspector or an administrator of a local education office, they can encourage the

dissemination of the strategy in further extent and frequency.

We confirmed that not a little number of trainees created some original lesson plans along to the HEL’s

strategy and tried to disseminate the strategy in the wide extent struggling against the difficulties. These

spontaneous actions by the trainees trust the possibility of a further dissemination of the strategy in Egyptian

primary science teachers in a future.

6-3. Improvement of Students and Teachers by the HEL’s Strategy

What encouraged the trainees in their spontaneous dissemination activity of the HEL’s strategy is the

most interesting question. There were many reports from the responded trainees concerning the positive

changes in both students and teachers in different aspects. The two major answers to Q13 in the follow up

survey reported the changes of teachers and students in enjoyment and motivation toward science lessons.

Nearly a quarter of the responded trainees reported the increase of students’ or teachers’ enjoyment and

motivation. Major free comments from the trainees concerned the improvements in motivation and in

performance of students toward to science study such as their students love science (P1, P17, P29 in Table 12)

and they had become more curious and active in science study (P2, P12, P13, P26).

The positive effect of the HEL’s strategy was not limited in motivation but also in actual improvements of

behavior and skills. Major behavioral change reported was a higher attendance to science lessons from the

17.8% of the responded trainees. The trainees commented the changes of behavior that their students think

deeper (P9), they listen to others (P14) and they became more organized and cooperative to the teacher in

doing experiments in a class (P14, P15, P16). One trainee reported that thinking skill of the students had

improved (P6).

Also the improvement in score, knowledge and concept was reported as a clear effect of the HEL’s

strategy. The 13.4% of the responded trainees answered that the score of their students had improved. In the

free comments to Q13 in the follow up survey, two trainees reported the achievement in knowledge (P11,

P24), and another two trainees reported the improvement in concepts (P12, P22).

Marked improvements were observed in the performance not only of the students but also of the teachers

in science classes. The responded trainees answered in the follow up survey that 91.4% of them had

succeeded in discovering a students’ misconception since the training (Q4 in Fig.4) and 64.4% of them had

asked reasons for the students’ answers in most of all the lessons.

Moreover, the strong correlations were observed among the agreement, the practice and the variety of

improvements of the teachers’ performance on the HEL’s strategy (Table 11). The more the trainees agreed

on the HEL’s strategy and applied it in his/her classes, the more the trainee asked reasons to the students,

discover misconception, instruct to other persons and use materials for making experiments.

These facts enable us to explain the mechanism of the spontaneous actions disseminating the HEL’s

strategy by the trainees as follows. The key generator of the mechanism is a high motivation of a teacher and

his/her students in applying the strategy. Several performances of enjoyable science lessons in a class

fascinated both the teacher and his/her students. The more the teacher realized a variety of positive effects on

the students, the more cooperation between the teacher and student in performing the strategy is promised in

the class. In this mechanism, the teacher and the students encourages their performance with each other (P21).

Some parents of the students understand the strategy and they welcome it (P27). This makes the teacher trust

on applying the strategy (P18). And it seems to be natural for the teacher to recommend the effective method

or technique to his/her colleague or close teachers who need helps in science instruction.

KJJ (Kasetsu Jikken Jugyou) that is the origin of the HEL’s strategy have a meaningful motto of

“enjoyable lessons”. In this research, we found the clear evidence that a number of “enjoyable lessons” had

performed in Egyptian classrooms by the trainees of the HEL’s strategy. Both a teacher and his/her students

could enjoy the science lessons by the strategy. The students became so happy that they love science.

Moreover, the strategy has proposed an innovation of science education in Egypt. One of the responded

trainees commented, “Correcting students misconception is a duty of every teacher, and it is suitable for

achieving science goals” (P31 in Table 12). As he said, the HEL’s strategy is opening a new era of conceptual

instruction in Egyptian educational scene.

Thus, we can say that HEL’s strategy succeeded in spreading the Japanese educational theory and

method of KJJ in Egypt.

6-4. Problems of the HEL’s Strategy and Their Solution

Before a further dissemination in the HEL’s strategy, all the problems should be solved as much as

possible. The follow up survey revealed three kinds of difficulties struggling against while the trainees apply

the strategy : (1) There was the environment in an Egyptian classroom. The 11.4% of the responded trainees

requested more materials for the strategy. Many trainees complained a high density of student in a class (G17,

D9 in Table 12), not enough lesson time or not suit curriculum (N5, N6, D5, D14, D15, D17 in Table 12), not

enough chance to be trained (N11, D19), not well equipped science laboratory and a shortage of materials

(G12, G16, G19, G26, D4, D6 in Table 12) and low achieved students in reading and writing (N4, N12, D21,

D22 in Table 12) ; (2) There was a difficulty of human reason. In the free comments of the follow up survey,

the responded trainees complained that an educational administrator such as an inspector, a school manager

had not paid attention to the HEL’s strategy but had required the trainees to use time in routine works (D3,

D7, D8, D13, D16 in Table 12). And some parents did not welcome to use the strategy for their children

(D2, D20 in Table 12) ; (3) There was a difficulty of insufficiency aids in applying the strategy. There was no

more chance to be trained on the strategy and no more supply of designed teaching plans on the strategy after

the training. The 22.4% of the responded trainees to the follow up survey requested more training on the

strategy, and 20.9% of them requested more teaching plans on the strategy (Q12 in Fig.4).

How to solve these three problems is a key concern for us. The requests from the responded trainees

suggested many creative ideas to solve these problems concerning the difficulties. Though the environmental

difficulties seem to be not easy to solve in a short period, the human reason will be removed by a further

dissemination of the HEL’s strategy. The wider the strategy spread in global primary schools in Egypt, the

more a school administrator and an inspector will become cooperative on the HEL’s strategy (G29, G30 in

Table 12). The top priority of their request was a further training (G8, G9, G10, G28, G32 in Table 12) and

provision of a guidebook and the new teaching plans and materials for the HEL’s strategy (G4, G7, G7, G13,

G15, G20 in Table 12). The advised to build up a web site to communicate between the trainees and the

trainer is considerable idea to disseminate the strategy (G20 in Table 12). This suggests the necessity of a

system to support the HEL’s trainees continuously.

Kasetsu Jikken Jugyou (KJJ) that is the origin of the HEL’s strategy have been disseminated by the

activities of KJJ committee organized by science teachers and researchers since 1970 in Japan (Table 1). The

committee is not only disseminating but also researching the new teaching plans to produce. To establish a

research organization to disseminate the strategy may be a future task for us. The production of the new

teaching plans that adapt to the environment in Egyptian classroom is the most expected work to support the

strategy. If MOE in Egypt will support the strategy, it will become a strong encouragement to that (G23, G24

in Table 12). More or less, a follow up training program is a key action to start the dissemination of the

strategy because some problems reported from the trainees had been already instructed how to avoid them in

the primary training program (N3, N7, N8 in Table 12).

7. Research Conclusion

7-1. Reaching to the Research Goal

We stated the following long-term effects to reach the research goal previously. How can we conclude by

the results of this study?

1- Reconstruct students' scientific concepts.

2- Solve students' misconception problem.

3- Solve the problem that students dislike science class and science study.

4- Promoting teachers’ performance in science classes.

5- Encourage teachers to apply simple and enjoyable experiments in their classes.

Even though we found that most of the trainees who applied the HEL’s strategy reported the discovery of

students’ misconception, only a few trainees commented that they succeeded in reforming students’

misconception into scientific concepts (P22, P31 in Table 12). We have no clear evidence that the majority of

the trainees succeeded in reforming misconceptions into scientific concepts according to the HEL’s strategy.

More detail research observing the practical lessons is necessary.

However, we can say that the HEL’s strategy introduced enough enjoyable lessons to motivate both the

students and the teachers. The HEL’s strategy succeeded in not only solving the problems that students dislike

science class and science study but also promoting teachers’ performance applying many simple and

enjoyable experiments to encourage students.

7-2. High potential of the HEL’s strategy

We conclude that the HEL’s strategy has a high potential to motivate the Egyptian science teachers and

the strategy is the most promising strategy that can solve the problems in the primary science education in

Egypt. The positive free comments from the responded trainees indicate the following effects.

1- Both the teacher and the students enjoy science lessons of the HEL’s strategy.

2- Most of the trainees introduced the strategy to their colleague teachers of not only in science but also

other subjects.

3- Performance and behavior of students concerning science study are developed.

4- Knowledge and skills of students concerning science study were improved.

5- Trainees of the HEL’s strategy requested further training and more information on the HEL’s strategy.

7-3. Problems solving for further dissemination of The HEL’s strategy

The HEL’s strategy seems to reveal many problems in Egyptian educational systems. One of the

problems that disturb the application of the strategy seems to be the traditional method of inspections. Some

responded trainees complained they are confronting against the tight control on the time management in

science classes and the heavy loaded evaluations wasting time and efforts. Egyptian primary inspectors tend

to evaluate their teachers superficially only by the quantities of the portfolios of their instruction. All the

inspectors should also be trained at least to understand the HEL’s strategy to become skillful more on

qualitative evaluation of teachers’ works. Obviously, the special training program for the primary science

inspectors is necessary for not only removing the main problem from the science teachers but also further

disseminating of the strategy. In fact, the comment from an inspector (Table 12) who is one of the trainees

suggested that the directive works of the trained inspectors give much higher positive impact on the primary

science teachers for disseminating the strategy. The more numbers of the trainees will become the new

inspectors, the more impact of the strategy will appear in a future.

Another problem is the relatively condensed curriculum of primary science in Egypt. The Ministry of

Education in Egypt (MOE) carried out the extension of the primary education from five years to six years in

2006 school year. And MOE moderated the primary science curriculum in some. However, time distribution

for science classes seems to be strictly controlled and monitored by inspection even now. Therefore, more

flexible direction for time management is required for the inspectional system.

7-4. Expected Impact on Egyptian Basic Education

The application of the HEL’s strategy in Egyptian science education will provide a new chance to

develop a modern strategy of basic education. The fruitful experience introducing the strategy will help the

science education in worldwide countries.

The simple method of managing classes and experimenting in the HEL’s strategy is originated from KJJ

(Kasetsu Jikken Jugyou) in Japan. The systematic approach of managing lesson in KJJ seems to be easier to

be accepted by Egyptian primary science teachers than other strategies of science instruction. The rich

resources of KJJ are attractive for Egyptian not only science teachers but also other subjects teachers such as

activities, social science, arts and crafts and mathematics because KJJ committee has been producing more

than 100 kinds of Lesson Sheets and teaching materials for not only science but also other subjects since 1970.

Thus, the success of the HEL’s strategy in science education will positively impact on the improvement

of the method of wider field of basic education in Egypt. And also we are confirming the efficiency of the

basic theory and the method of KJJ that originated in Japan by the success of the HEL’s strategy in Egypt.

7-5. Further Researches

In this study, we could confirm the high potential of the HEL’s strategy to motivate Egyptian primary

science teachers toward to conceptual reform. However, how to make confirm and improve their ability

concerning the conceptual reform of Egyptian students is the next task for us. More and detail information

from a lot of case studies and practical observations are necessary for that.

8. Research Recommendation and Suggestions

As the conclusion, the following suggests are proposed for disseminating the HEL’s (Hypothesis

Experiments Lesson’s) strategy in Egypt.

1- Special training program for the science inspectors on the strategy.

2- Follow up and up grading training program for the primary trained science teachers.

3- System of communication among trainees for exchanging their experience and products.

4- Moderated science curriculum and more flexible system for the inspection of science teachers.

Acknowledgement

We wish to thank Mr. K. Hashimoto in JICA Project office and Mr. M. Bondok in PPMU Cairo office

for the effort of managing the primary teachers training program. And also we thank for the cooperation by all

the staff of JICA Egypt Office and Dr.Nadia Gamal El-Din who was the director of NCERD. We note that

PPMU and JICA funded the primary training program.

Reference

1 Program Planning Monitoring Unit in Egypt aided by World Bank and European Union.

2 Japan International Cooperation Agency.

3 UNESCO (2000), Country Report of Egypt, In “The EFA 2000 Assessment”, The repetition rate of primary

grades was 5.6% in average from 1992 to 1998 in Egypt. Especially the rate of girl students was higher

than 10% in the 5th grade.

4 A misconception test on the first grade students in the four Egyptian preparatory schools in 1998 indicated

that sixty seven percent of the students had more than thirty kinds of misconceptions that are well known

in Japanese students.

5 Posner G. J., Strike K. A., Hewson P. W. and Gertzog W. A. (1982), Accommodation of a scientific

conception: Toward a theory of conceptual change, Science Education, 66, pp.211-227.

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Cognitive Psychology, and Educational Theory and Practice”, pp.147-176, Albany, NY, SUNY.

7 Constructivists specifically named it a “naïve theory” or an “alternative framework” to distinguish it with a

“misconception” as a result of an irrelevant education.

8 Posner G. J., Strike K. A., Hewson P. W. and Gertzog W. A. (1982), Accommodation of a scientific

conception: Toward a theory of conceptual change, Science Education, 66, pp.211-227.

9 Scot, P., Asok, H. and Driver, R. (1992), Teaching for conceptual change: A review of strategies, In

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10 K. Itakura was a researcher of the National Center for Educational Research in Japan.

11 K. Itakura (1963), “Firiko to Shindou (Jpn)” (A pendulum and Swing)–a text for the Kasetsu Jikken

Jugyou, Rika-kyoushitsu (Science Class), November 1963, p.17.

12 The committee of the Kasetsu Jikken Jugyou was founded in 1970 and it is organizing the ordinary

schoolteachers and educational researchers in 1970.

13 “Kasetsu-shya” is the main publisher of KJJ committee. Address: 2-13-7 Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku,

Tokyo, Japan, 169. Tel : 0081-3-3204-1779, Fax : 0081-3-3204-1781.

14 The term of “conceptual change” is widely used in researches on constructivism. However, we propose to

use “conceptual reform” as an educational term that means a conceptual development or achievement

toward to appropriate scientific concept by means of a certain designed lesson.

15 K. Itakura (1997), “Kasetsu Jikkenn Jugyou no ABC (Jpn)” (ABC of Hypotheses Experiments Lessons)

the 4th edition, Kasetsu-shya, pp.23-24.

16 K. Itakura, “Kagaku to Houhou (Jpn)”(Science and Method of Science), Kusestu-shya, pp.226-233, 1969.

17 Bybee, R. W. (1999), “Achieving Scientific Literacy- from purposes to practices”, pp.121-122, Heineman,

Portsmouth, NH.